You Plus Me Equals Love
by Yukio Sunshaine
Summary: Direct sequel to "How to Fall in Love: The Takao Project". Takao's project of how and why people fall in love (while actually falling in love in the process too) is finally finished and submitted. But he got more than a potentially good grade from the project, he was able to win Midorima's heart too. Join these two again to find out if this simple equation really does hit the mark.


**Title:** You + Me = Love  
**Author:** jankenguu  
**Rating:** T  
**Pairing:** Midorima Shintaro &amp; Takao Kazunari  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own Kuroko no Basket, as well as the characters (except for some OCs that were excerpted from the prequel).  
**Note:** The Shutoku Lovebirds are pretty much super lovey dovey with each other in this story (so much homo haha), since this is the direct sequel from my previous work, How to Fall in Love: The Takao Project. I heavily recommend reading **that** first before this story!

Also, the title pays homage to the first opening song of my most favorite shoujo romantic comedy of all time, Lovely Complex!

So, everyone, let's ride this roller coaster of fluffy feels once again and enjoy!

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File 01. _Challenge_

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_What a time to be alive!_

_I don't care if I'd be the laughing stock for years to come anymore because of my teacher that's actually a hopeless romantic who'd probably proudly announce and brag to everyone that one of her students fell in love because of the project she asked them to do— about how and why things happen._

_And my project just happened to be about how and why people fall in love. I've gone through many lengths to find that out, only to… well, like I mentioned just now… fall in love in the process too._

_It's not like I really wanted to fall in love in the first place. I just thought during the time that it was an interesting topic to make a project about. Falling in love just… sort of happened. But who cares about that? I feel so happy right now that I feel like I'm about to explode into a million other stars! The big bang, baby! And who says I haven't learned in school?_

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"Onii-chan, welcome back!" greeted Kazunari's little sister, Mitsuko, as she ran up to him towards the door. She looked up at her older brother with curious eyes as she noticed him being happier than usual, greeting her back a few seconds slower than usual. What stood out the most from Kazunari was the blissful expression on his mien.

"Uwah! You look so happy!" She had never seen her brother so happy which made her just as happy. It was as if something really important had happened, though she was confident she could guess what it was.

"You have no idea how happy I am, dearest little sister," Kazunari sighed happily, not even denying how elated he was at that very moment.

"Oh? Is it because you've finally confessed to the person you're in love with?" she snickered, her hand over her mouth. She could have also guessed that the teacher liked his project, but he couldn't be _this_ overjoyed only because of some school project.

"Ajasd?! Hasjdkasd?!" Kazunari's dialogue translation, accompanied with a burning red face: "What the—? How the heck did you find that out?!"

Mitsuko chuckled triumphantly after knowing she hit bull's-eye. "Didn't you know? I checked your project one last time without you knowing."

Kazunari narrowed his eyes. He should have known better than to underestimate his own little sister. And he could derive only one conclusion from this situation: that she was definitely a wolf in sheep's clothing. But this wasn't something he could get angry at his own sibling for, no matter how devious she was for a middle school student.

He coughed to hide his embarrassment, crossing his arms as he raised an eyebrow at the petite female. "What if I did?"

The younger female sensed this as a challenge from her older brother. She smiled innocently as she twirled her hair. "What are you saying, Kazu-nii? Can't a little sister be happy for her own older brother?" The innocent smile changed into a more sinister one— a smile to be feared for years to come by the older brother. "I'm sure Mama and Papa will be ecstatic to hear the news too."

The point guard's eye twitched, a sarcastic smile plastered on his features. He perfectly knew what she had meant by that. "I'm sure they'd love to hear that some other time. But for now, do you want Kazu-nii to treat you to ice cream?"

"Yay! Ice cream!" she cheered as she threw her hands up in the air. "I want the strawberry flavor with lots and lots of sprinkles in it!"

He rolled his eyes and grinned at Mitsuko. He thought this would be a good opportunity for quality bonding time with his own sister. "Okay, okay."

Excitedly, she linked her arm around his. "This will be our way of celebrating Kazu-nii's great love confession!" she chirped.

"It's not that great…" Kazunari chortled bashfully.

"Will you tell me everything that happened, then?" she asked with sparkling eyes.

Kazunari thought it was time for payback, because two could play at that game.

He shook his head. "You can only ask for so many things one at a time, little sister. Which do you prefer: ice cream or my love story?" he proposed, the tone of his voice dripping with sarcasm that his little sister didn't understand yet.

He smirked. It felt like a good rebound for him after a slam dunk from his sister.

"You're so unfair!" she whined, her cheeks puffed out. "But I really want ice cream right now, so…"

"Ice cream it is, then!"

_I win_, he thought to himself. Not only because he was able to stall time of telling his sister everything that had happened between him and Midorima, but also because of simply winning the Shutoku's ace's heart.

There was no better victory than that.

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**A/N:** Hello, guys! It's Author-san again presenting you with the sequel of How to Fall in Love: The Takao Project, You + Me = Love!

I wanted to make a title that would be matched to the prequel's title— but yeah, You + Me = Love is still related to school, so . Also BEST USE OF LOVELY COMPLEX REFERENCE EVER (best shoujo for me your argument is invalid jk jk I just love this show too much).

Many of you will ask, why a sequel and not just continue from where the story left off? Firstly, the story was last updated two years ago. Secondly, I don't want to put my new style of writing into an almost two-year-old story. It's like… preservation. Haha I'm weird like that.

And I happened to reread it earlier (yes, earlier) and got lots of feels from it. If there was one thing I admired from the prequel, it was definitely the characterizations of Midorima and Takao! I'm proud of my two years ago self haha. I hope I can keep it up with this story.

Know where I got the idea and inspiration for this story? From the bathroom lmao. But I guess it's the equivalent of sitting under a waterfall!

Also, you guys don't need to worry this story with slow updates, because I already have four chapters' worth of ideas! (Usually, brainstorming is the hardest, so… yeah haha). Ah, also I named Takao's little sister Mitsuko because her name means "bright child".

Lastly, I hope you'll enjoy reading this story as much as you did with the prequel. Thanks for reading again xoxo


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